Using the power for good . . .

Less than 24 hours after my previous post, Mediacom and FSN struck a deal.

I, of course, take full credit for the successful completion of this agreement.

All is well.

Mediacom's Pockets: Deep and Closed

As a St. Louis Cardinals fan that doesn't live in St. Louis, I was upset that Tuesday's (May 15) game against the Dodgers wasn't televised. Actually, it was televised on Fox Sports Mid West. However, I live in Springfield where the ONLY cable company is Mediacom. Mediacom did not broadcast the game.

Why not?

Well, Fox Sports Net is broadcasting 20 more Cardinals games this year than in previous years. This is a result of the over the air rights going from KPLR to KSDK. KSDK wasn't going to broadcast as many games so FSN picked up the slack. Now it costs money to broadcast these games. So FSN is going to push some of that cost to cable and satellite providers. According to this article in the Jefferson City News Tribune, 70% of the providers accepted the higher cost. Cheap skate Mediacom, of course, was not among them. Mediacom claimed that they would HAVE to pass the cost to the customer.

Here's what I don't get: The cost of Dish or some other satellite service is around the same as cable service. Yet, the satellites are able to provide the missing 20 games, but Mediacom can't? It's just one more example of the company's greed.

Another thing I don't like is that they are being coy about what remaining 19 games aren't going to be broadcast. Check out the info at the bottom of the Tribune article.

The next game of the 20 not scheduled to be broadcast by Mediacom is this Saturday. Goldman did not provide other specific games, saying there are four in June, seven in July, four in August and three in September.

Being the peristant jerk I am, I found the dates on the iNerd. I bet someone released this information but wasn't supposed to. Not that I would blame the "informant." Only Mediacom would feel the need to hide this sort of asinine info. These are the dates that the St. Louis Cardinals will NOT be broadcast on Mediacom (as of May 17, 2007). (Hat tip: Nexstar Broadcasting)

May 19 at Detroit 6:00pm
June 1 at Houston 7:00pm
June 8 Los Angeles Angels 7:00pm
June 9 Los Angeles Angels 6:00pm
June 18 Kansas City 7:00pm
July 3 Arizona 7:00pm
July 4 Arizona 6:00pm
July 6 San Francisco 7:00pm
July 7 San Francisco 6:00pm
July 24 Chicago 7:00pm
July 26 Chicago 7:00pm
July 27 Milwaukee 7:00pm
August 6 San Diego 7:00pm
August 7 San Diego 7:00pm
August 8 San Diego 7:00pm
August 9 San Diego 7:00pm
September 17 Philadelphia 7:00pm
September 18 Philadelphia 7:00pm
September 20 Houston 7:00pm

Just look at those dates. No Cardinals baseball on July 4! Black out of a WHOLE series with the Padres! Black out of two consecutive Cubs games! Now that I think about it, I may see why they don't want people to see these dates. Keep the masses in the dark. (Thank Google for blogging and crawling web search.)

If I didn't rent, I would have satellite in a heartbeat. Most sports bars in Springfield have Mediacom cable. A couple use satellite so I guess I'll be patronizing them more unless this gets resolved. I think that the more people know about this, the more pressure Mediacom will be under. I notified the Tribune in of the actual dates and sent some emails to the Springfield News-Leader on the dates. Apparently, they were planning on doing a story but couldn't get any info from Mediacom (imagine that!). Hopefully the dates will be printed in the paper and people can start their seemingly annual calls to Mediacom threatening to cancel their subscriptions.

I can only hope.

Never Mind the Bullocks...

I usually expect there to be political points to be made about any event in the world. And for the most part, I accept it as inevitable. I won't always agree and I can take opinions with a grain of salt.

However, this guy really takes it to a breathtaking extreme...

For some reason, the Virginia Tech incident really hit me harder than other "national tragedies" do. I think that it upset me so much because I see college as a place that allows for more freedom than one experiences in typical American life. It's less time regulated than high school and carries less responsibilities than the working world. It's supposed to be a safe place to learn and experience the some of the best years of your life. I couldn't imagine what those students went through.

Scatter Brain

I have been looking for a hobby that will take my interest and focus my attention to one goal. This isn't really making any headway. So far, the hobby front runner seems to be "social drinking." Just to underscore how scattered my thinking is, I will give you a few of the ideas and activities that I got this week.

- Here's one that I thought about this week. I don't think living in an apartment is conducive to brewing my own beer. Also, when the kit comes in the mail, judging by its appearance and my neighborhood, it could be misconstrued as a mail-order meth lab.

-I like the idea of having my own radio station. The fact that I would be broadcasting to my block at the most actually makes it even more appealing. I'm not sure that I have enough content. However, it's pirate radio. I could just hook an iPod to the transmitter and play my music library on shuffle.

-Apparently The Aquabats are taking song title suggestions from fans. I plan on submitting a few each day. I encourage everyone to do the same. Just email them here.

-I've been reading Sedaris, but I probably won't make it to his reading on Friday. That's a little disappointing.

On Vonnegut's passing: I heard it on NPR the next morning. It was the type of news I just stopped whatever I was doing and held my breath. I think most of all, it is the finality of it. There will never be new Kurt Vonnegut material.

Much of his work focused on living life and the meaning we assign to it. So every tribute to him that I read had a different quote that "encapsulated" his work. This is ridiculous, of course. His work cannot be summed up in one quote. If you want to know his thoughts, read Slaughterhouse Five or Mother Night.

Quotes are satisfying, however. Here's one that I enjoyed:

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person
dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is
very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and
future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at
all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky
Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and
they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have
here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and
that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.

-- Slaughterhouse Five

Tweakin'...

Offhandedly, I told my friend Gary that I probably average one CD purchase a week. Looking back, I suppose it is the first time I admitted I have a problem. Aside from the needless financial burden, I suppose it means I have the attention span of a hummingbird. All that being said, I didn't buy any music this week. (Note: I buy ALL of my music, unless a track or two is provided by the artist. You should, too.)

I am having a slight withdrawal. There is no new album to play repeatedly until it gets old. There is no comparing a band's latest effort with previous work. None of that. The same music library as last week. I'm getting a little anxious. Foot tapping. Forearm scratching. I may need to go out an get the new Ted Leo and I am just a moderate fan. I am taking suggestions on my next purchase. The winner will win my praise. The losers will be ridiculed mercilessly.

I am also taking summer vacation suggestions.

Stupid Lisa, Science Queen...

On one of my night time walks to counteract my day of sloth, I did something different. I walked counterclockwise around the block. After a couple hundred yards of vertigo, I settled myself. While it is the same geographic path, it's interesting how different things are.

The most interesting thing was in a run down apartment building (not too dissimilar from my own.) Clockwise, the most notable thing about the building was I once saw a opposum (or posum; It was too fast for me to check) run onto it's porch then disappear somewhere. Perhaps, the marsupial sublets an apartment.

Counterclockwise, the building contained some sort of religious ceremony in one of the apartments. Through a window I saw a man in white with a red symbol on his back. It was most likely a cross. Now, I am not some sort of weird peeping tom. It was plain to see from the sidewalk. That being said, my walks usually consist of three laps around the block. Therefore, I had two more chances to see what was going on. The next lap revealed a boy standing looking into a book. I also saw a podium in the corner. It was one of those podiums you only see in school or places of worship. So it may be a school, but I am sticking with a place of worship. The lights were off on my third lap. Why I am suprised to see such a thing in Springfield, I don't know. But it is such an unassuming building. There's no sign inviting people to worship. It must be a private area. I would have never known any of this existed if I went clockwise.

The moon was huge tonight, the way it is only when it is on a brisk, thoughtful night. It mixed well with Jolie Holland's "Sascha."

Don't GoOK

I went to the OK City Hornets/Houston Rockets game on Sunday in Oklahoma City. This was the furthest west I have ever driven on I-44. I thnk it will be a long time before I ever go back again. Don't get me wrong. From what I saw of downtown Oklahoma City I liked. It was very clean for a major city. However, the drive is a bear. Not one but two tolls for the right to drive on a turnpike that hasn't seen a road repair crew since the late 80s. The outlying towns along the interstate are not that inviting. I am very glad the car didn't breakdown. Nevertheless, I went to the game and now I can add it to the list of major professional sports that I have attended.

Mark March 24, 2007 on your calendar. I finally changed the last clock in the apartment one hour ahead.

...and so it goes.

I recently purchase Jawbreaker's "24 Hour Revenge Therapy." At the point of purchase, I thought it was a bit overpriced. However, it had a couple tracks that I knew I already liked so I went ahead and bought it. I am very glad that I did.

The music on this album is very relaxing to me. It's comfortable. It isn't fast and loud to get my spirits up and it isn't slow to put me to sleep. It is just very familiar, comforting music. One treat that I found was that on the track "Condition Oakland" they have audio of Jack Kerouac reading something (perhaps On the Road). That reading just adds to the comfort. It is distinctly Kerouac, referencing Lowell, his hometown, and speaking in that odd New England/French accent. Needless to say, I recommend this album.

Hockey ends soon.

Baseball begins.

Huzzah!

Damn Good 24 Hours

Despite feeling noticable better about my sinus troubles, and possibly needing only one more night of meticulous medicating, I drove to Columbia for the Against Me! show. As expected, the lack of medicating and sufficient sleep set me back in health recovery. But it was worth it.

First, let me say The Blue Note is a fun venue. It's huge and has a balcony and gilded archways. Fake Problems opened. They were pretty good, especially for an opening act. Riverboat Gamblers next. They had a lot of energy but slowed down a little toward the end of their set because (they claimed) they were all sick. Then Against Me! I sat through the first two bands, but when they opened with A Brief Yet Triumphant Intermission, I had to rise. It was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.

Today, when I got home from work, I had a letter in the mail from Interstate Bakeries. It contained a hard copy of the email I received AND two certificates for any Interstate Bakeries product (e.g. Hostess, Wonder Bread, etc.) It reminded me of my grandmother who wrote letters to companies when their products failed in some way. Once, she wrote a company about a defective alarm clock. They sent her a written apology and a new clock in the mail. Due to a clerical error, the next month she received the same letter and another clock. She ended up getting three or four alarm clocks.

The Elusive and Endangered Chocodile

When I was around 12 or 13, my grandmother used to give me Hostess Chocodiles as an afternoon snack. Admittedly, these were unusual treats. I had never seen them in stores. But nevertheless, she had them. What is a chocodile? It is essentially a chocolate covered Twinkee. But for some reason, the combination of the two was greater than the sum of its parts. So about a week ago I was feeling particularly nostalgic so I contacted the Interstate Bakeries company about the whereabouts of the Chocodile.

According to their email response, Chocodiles are now only produced on the west coast. They did direct me to sites that offer quick and efficient delivery of the confection. But why does there need to be a middle man? There is a Hostess factory in KC. When I get to the left coast someday, I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this guy.

Don't hold your breath...

As has been reported by most papers that subscribe to the AP (read: every lazy paper in America), Springfield is in a sort of competition...by default (the two greatest word in the English language). I think the only resemblance that SpringMo has to the "real" Springfield is the abundance of Reverend Lovejoys and Flanderseses.

I was talking to a women at a bar this weekend from upstate New York. She seemed genuinely surprised at the large number of smokers. I know Missouri uses a lot of tobacco (Number 3...oh yeah...we're after you Kentucky and North Carolina), but is it that much more than the rest of the nation? In reading Hangsaman, like most Jackson, smoking is about as common than blinking. The 17 year old protagonist recalls her parents encouraging her and instructing her how to smoke, I suppose, to be more social or ladylike. Keep in mind this is the 1950s. Is there something like that today? Something that parents encourage their kids to do to be more social at events like cocktail parties? What happened to cocktail parties? Am I still too young for witty banter and conversation? I think not.

I didn't have much to say to her about New York except to rattle off some fairs in the state. Everything is relative to fairs now. "San Antonio, eh? Your Livestock Exposition had record attendance this year. Good for you."

Hangsaman

I was discussing pre-torn jeans with my friend Marcus last night. They of course are ridiculous. You get a lesser product, both in quantity and quality. Also, they don't really make much sense. Who over the age of 10 makes holes in the knees of their pants. Real jeans tears are unfashionable. I wore a hole at the corner of the seat pocket of one of my jeans. I can't walk around like that and claim "Hey, it's the fashion."

I will be attending the Against Me! concert this week. However, I have not completely decided if I am going to Columbia or St. Louis. I didn't realize it takes just about as long to get to Columbia as St. Louis. I'm still leaning toward Columbia. If anyone has suggestions, I'll gladly take them .

I'm reading Hangsaman right now. (Don't let that awful cover fool you.) It's about a schitzo soon-to-be college student. I think it is written pre-Bell Jar. (After quick and possibly inaccurate research, it was)

Feel better overall today but sound worse.

Turkey in the Rain

I don't remember what show it was (maybe West Wing or ER) but a wise character was teaching a naive some valuable life lesson with an allegory. It was something along the lines of turkeys will keep drinking falling rain until they drown themselves. Then touching music followed while Mr. Naive stared at Mr. Wise who was walking away.

I just thought of that because it feels like I am drowning in post nasal drip. I've woken in the middle of the night because my wind pipe was so clogged. It's more annoying than dangerous. I woke up two hours earlier than I normally do last night and had to take some Alka-Seltzer (or Elixir of the Gods). At this point, I may just get some whiskey to clean to clear things up. I'm no doctor, but that seems like a reasonable treatment.

I'm watching the Blues game. I am so gratefu for the FSN network. Otherwise, I would be dependent on one game a week on NBC between two teams that they think we will want to watch (just because I live in the midwest doesn't mean I want to watch Chicago). Even then it is hit or miss. One week, the Blues were playing on NBC. I was excited. They were still in the playoff hunt. I shit you not, the game was pre-empted after the first period for a MSU Bears basketball game. Not just any game: the game was also being broadcast on another channel. Turns out the Blues game went into overtime and MSU got blown out. But who pre-empts a game after only one period. Give me all the game or none. Don't tease me. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, hooray for FSN.

I bought another pair of faux-chucks from No Sweat. While chucks should have some amount of wear on them, my right shoe lost the paneling on the outside during the Flogging Molly show. If I had the piece I would rubber cement it, but it is lost in Pop's lore now.

Kumquats or Raisinets

I have been leaking mucous for the past couple of days. I am not sure if it is a cold or allergies or a little of both. But whatever the cause, it is quite annoying. I wake up with a sore throat and sick to my stomach which is full of post nasal drip snot. Good image, I know.

When at the gracery store today, I was waiting in line for the self check out. The two guys in front of me were self-checking produce. I was worried they wouldn't make it because there was no barcode. They made it. Then, when it was my turn, I raced the lady next to me. She had a head start and fewer things. I lost...but barely.

I am kind of getting into the general flow of work. It can get busy when an issue needs to go to print, but it slows down significantly in between it going to press and it coming back from press.

I found out that my GA poetry teacher won third place in a poetry contest last year. There is hope for us all, I swear.

21 Century Orphans

Well, it has been a long time since I've posted here. It just simply fell to the wayside. There was nothing to keep me reminded about it. And when I did remember it, I didn't really care. But recently I have been interested in the "new Web 2.0" whatever that means. Apparently there are cool things I can do with all this new technology in exchange for a chipping away at personal privacy. But hey, at least I can link to monkeys doing it. (I am not searching for it so I am not really going to post a link, you sick people).

Since I last posted, I have graduated and found a new job. I got to write "writer" on my tax return this year. How satisfying that is!

Now that I have a 9 to 5, I should, in theory, have more consistent free time. I want to write more in that free time. But pure laziness is keeping me from doing that. (Let's call a spade a spade here.) So I will try to write in this blog much more often, try to network in the old blogosphere, and get more involved in this whole thing. I just need to write more, in general. no matter what it's about.

I will be back later to keep the promise.